I guess I might as well formally introduce myself. My name is Harry and when I am not wandering around my garden, I have been a trial lawyer for the past 30+ years. In recent years I have opened and presently run a traffic ticket defense law firm. For those wayward Florida drivers that can't seem to avoid the "lead foot" syndrome, you can find me at
www.florida-ticket-defense.com.
Anyway, most of you already know me from the Garden Web Tropical Fruit Forum. I have conversed with most of you and I have even had about half of the members currently enrolled in this Forum over to my house at one time or another. My home is located in Western Broward County.......Town of Davie to be specific, in Southeastern Florida. I bought my home (and its 2.39 acres) in 1989. Initially, it was orchids that were my passion and with which I occupied my time. I had over 1,000 orchid plants in my collection. I was a member of the Plantation Orchid Society for many years. I am a past president and served on their board for about 10 years. Gradually, over time, I came to realize that orchids eventually die.....most of them at least and besides that you can't do much in the way of eating them (apologies to vanilla). I learned about the Broward Rare Fruit and Vegetable Council and started subscribing to their newsletter. I attended a few meetings. I got to taste some mangoes that didn't really taste like mangoes. Hints of pineapple, citrus and coconut got my attention and got me to develop a new appreciation for mangoes that I never had growing up in South Florida and tasting Turpentine mangoes with their strong resinous bite. Slowly, I became enamoured with other tropical fruits and have gone on to a mild (ok....severe) case of mango mania. I think my present mango collection sports about 120 trees, which includes, I think, 104 cultivars/varieties at the present time. I have over 300 fruiting trees/plants which includes collections of jakfruit, lychees, longans, dragonfruit, sapodillas, carambola, canistel, sapotes (Ross, white, black and mamey), annonas (illama, sugar apple, atemoya, rollinia and some, as of yet potted, cherimoya), pineapple, avocado, abiu, momoncillo (spanish lime, genip), bananas, pomelo, macadamia nut, mammee and Malay apple, june plum, loquat, grumichama, Surinam Cherry, mulberry, cacao, wax jambu, various garcinias, tamarind, indian jujube and Kwai Muk. Other than these few things, I am not growing very much at all.
My wife and I have two boys. They are currently 10 and 13 years old. Here we are at a recent family photo shoot at the beach:
I look forward to interacting here on this new Forum. I also would like to extend an open invitation to members of this Forum to come by my home to sample whatever I may have that is ripening at that time. I very much enjoy sharing the fruits I grow. Just drop me an e-mail to let me know when you'd like to stop by and we can work out a mutually convenient time for your visit. I do have a small fruit stand at the front of my house. It works on the honor system (well, sometimes works on the honor system) and this has provided the required agricultural income for me to obtain an agricultural exemption on a portion of my property (a big property tax saver). From time to time I do sell fruit which I can ship out. Time requirements sometime limit me in this, but when I have fruit available, I'll try to post that information on the BUY/SELL section of this Forum.
See you all around the Forum.
Harry
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